Painting Lava Help

[CreganTur]

I'm creating some lava themed bases for my Grey Knight Paladins and I need some help with the painting of the lava. I followed the suggestions from the lava painting tutorial from Irregular Magazine #1. I think my main problem is that I just don't have enough lava to really do much with it. The areas that are brightest are actually raised- which is why I painted them brighter.

I created the lava out of water effects (mixed in some sunny yellow first so I wouldn't have to paint over it) and the painted over it. My camera killed some of the blending, but also I didn't completely finihs it since I wasn't happy with how it was looking.

Suggestions?

 

[airhead]

Looks good.
Accent the cracks with a yellow line might help the bases pop.

**go all out ***
Reverse lighting (light from below) on the knights' armor. Red glows on the legs, underside of the arms, etc. Tough to pull of but amazing if you do.

 

[Benihana]

Looks good to me too, much better than most of the lava bases I see. I prefer the realistic look, and you've nailed it (especially under his foot).

My only comment would be, on the other bases, perhaps you can incorporate the darker oozing style, like these:

http://www.sfdm.scad.edu/faculty/mkesson/vsfx419/wip/spring11/mario_huang/lava_shader/lava02.jpg
http://www.sfdm.scad.edu/faculty/mkesson/vsfx419/wip/spring11/mario_huang/lava_shader/lava01.jpg

 

[Dragonsreach]

Personally I really dislike Lava Bases and have only ever painted one and that was this year.
For that I had to overcome my own predudices to get a "reasonable effect", I painted the Lave first with PVA to get a smooth surface prior to priming.
Once primed (Black) I selectively drybrushed areas of the caked lava with greys, then painted the lava White with several coats of thin Vallejo Aribrish White.
Making sure that the white was smooth and with out blemishes I used Vallejo red in the closest areas to the Caked lava and "Flicked" the brush against prominent grey highlights to get a semi refelective appearance.
From there on I used very dilute orange mixed into the red to get a more glowing hotter lava, swapping over to a bright yellow as soon as possible.
For the brightest highlights I reverted back to the white.
And when all was dry I used Vallejo White Glaze to 'bring it all together'.

 

[Benihana]

@Dragonsreach: I don't see a mini with a lava base in your gallery. Do you mind posting a photo so we can see the final result? I can't picture it based on the description alone.

 

[Dragonsreach]

@Dragonsreach: I don't see a mini with a lava base in your gallery. Do you mind posting a photo so we can see the final result? I can't picture it based on the description alone.

Err Yes................Sadly that mini was a Commission (Salamanders Primarch) that some Numpty forgot to take a picture of.
Wonder who that'd be?

 

[BlerYon]

You should find sth here:

http://gathered-painting.blogspot.com/2011/08/basing-podstawki.html